By Colleen Daum
Staff Writer
I spoke with seniors Camielle Larrick and Ashley Logan about their senior art exhibition on Nov. 16 where their art pieces are included. From the most challenging projects to advice for future students; these two share their experience with us.
Colleen: Tell me about some of the pieces that are going to be in the show? And are these pieces of art just going to be from class or are they going to be from your own personal work as well?
Camielle: I have stuff all the way from freshman year to senior year that are going to be in there. The paintings and 3-D work will be from class. I might be putting some photography in; that will be on my own, if I get it matted in time.
Ashley: Yes (some is personal, some is from class). There will be graphic design things I have done over the years, a sketch portrait of myself and maybe a couple others around it. Also, paintings; my series of eggs (paintings) and maybe two pieces that I just did.”
Colleen: What kind of media are you working with?
Camielle: It will be oil paintings; I’m going to have watercolors in it. I’ll have ceramic, photography, maybe some design work I’ve done so it should be pretty eclectic.
Colleen: Which of the pieces that is in the gallery has been one of your most interesting or challenging (or both) pieces that you worked on?
Camielle: All of them were challenges for me! Maybe a couple ceramic pieces were easier and not too much of a challenge, but I think the most that I have learned from are gonna be the 4 x 7 neon painting and the black and white painting; red ink to clover. That one, that one was challenging, the background of that one.
Ashley: That is a good question, I really don’t know. I won’t know until everything is in the gallery the night before and then I actually look in the gallery and see which one and ‘I’m like dang I did that?!’
Colleen: Could you name any inspiration that you have had for these pieces?
Photo by: Colleen Daum/ The Woods
Camielle: Probably me battling to be better and expand what I know, and do things that I don’t know. Pretty much everything in there, minus the ceramic pieces, I had no idea how to do, I just did it. They were all pretty much experiments. A lot of experimentation.
And doing what I hate to make it so I like it.
Colleen: Specifically referring to the gallery show on Nov. 16, what were some of your challenges in creating this show and preparing for it?
Camielle: Well a few tips; all of which I did not do, so I learned the hard way. Find out if and when you are going to have a show. (Find out) which semester you’re going to have it your senior year. I was undecided whether I was going to have a show so I wish I would have made up my mind sooner. But once you do find out, and even before you find out you’re going to have one, prepare yourself the entire semester for it. Don’t just take a month out of your time because your never gonna have time.
Make it an ongoing process. I didn’t do that and now I’m scrambling. I’m losing hair. If you’re like me and you did wait till the last minute, make sure you can con your friends or significant other into saving your butt by helping you out.
Ashley: Having people look at it, that’s for sure. I know when I did the ‘Focus the Woods’ poster I was very panicky, I couldn’t even look at people looking at it. Like, I had to go walk away. I get really bad nerves when people see what I have done because I don’t know what they are going to think about it. I’m excited. I want to do it but I don’t want to do it at the same time because I’m nervous.
Colleen: What is the most fun you had with a piece for this show? Which piece would be the most rewarding?
Photo by: Colleen Daum/ The Woods
Camielle: Hmm, I have found that none of my work has been fun. It’s been a battle and a struggle and I look at it, and it always can be fun; but I don’t think that your best pieces are fun. I feel like you need to hate your piece at the end and that’s when you know it’s done and it’s good. I have learned a lot from doing all the painting. The most rewarding painting? That is so hard. The most rewarding medium for me has been probably painting. I know I can do ceramics, I know I can do it, I’m glad I know how to do it but that’s not really rewarding for me. Overcoming your struggles and learning the hard way makes the piece more rewarding. So, I think either the neon painting or the black and white one; those two are probably the most rewarding.
Colleen: Is there any advice that you would like to share with future students?
Ashley: Just have fun with it. Start early, start your freshman year.
Colleen: Is there any good advice you would like to share that you have received from a professor or faculty member with this department?
Camielle: They are constantly helping and maybe when they don’t necessarily think that they are teaching, they are teaching and helping. When I’m extremely frustrated and at wits end, they probably helped tell me to quit thinking so much about it. I analyze way too much and I’m too much of a perfectionist. You need to somehow train yourself to let go and embrace your mistakes. Because things you think are complete failures and mistakes, and something that just ruined you piece, you can expand on them. That’s what I think makes great pieces of art.
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